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Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Post ban lift, PSUs shy away from IIT placements

DESPITE the fact that the Madras High Court last September lifted a ban on direct campus recruitment by PSUs, very few have shown keen interest to hire from the best technical places in the country. In fact, many IITs were hoping to get a robust response from the state-run companies. PSU jobs are quite lucrative and are safe. According to one report in a leading daily, only five... PSUs have confirmed their presence in each of the institutes. Most of the established IITs had reached out to 80-odd PSUs in the country for this year's placements and hoped an impressive turnout after the PSUs were allowed to conduct direct campus placements. Some of the PSUs registered at IITs have opted for slots in the second phase of recruiting in January, even as IITs were keen to get them in the first placement phase that starts on December 1.
One reason may be that the campus placement format followed at the IITs may not be suitable for the PSUs. At the IITs, the companies give instant offers to students. Once students get offers and they accept them, they cannot participate in other interviews. Though some like Coal India do give instant offers during the campus process, others have to follow a set format, which takes time.
IIT-Madras has got confirmations from four PSUs, three of which have already begun the recruitment process. ISRO, Indian Navy and Coal India are the companies that are recruiting from their campus, said the report. "We do not know if there is any specific reason for the low turnout. They probably prefer to hire using the GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test for Engineering) scores of students. But we are trying to reach out to the technical heads of individual PSUs so that they can convey their requirements to their human resources department. We hope more companies participate in the placement process in the coming days," an IIT professor was quoted as saying.
PSUs usually hire students using their GATE scores. A lot of students leave their M-Tech course in between to join PSUs after they get their confirmation.
BHEL and BEL have registered at some of the IITs so far.
PSUs were in great demand in IITs before a public interest litigation was filed in 2011 against the campus recruitment process. The petition said that the PSUs recruiting directly from campuses defies the public employment policy and that they cannot disregard job notifications. After a long hiatus from campuses, the PSUs were expected to be back on the premier institutions after the Madras High Court dismissed a plea against direct recruitment in September last year.